Love Horizon
by eri-loves-nozomi
Summary: A series of short ficlets about our favorite girls as they deal with their new life stuck inside the game-world of Elder Tale. There will be mention of shipping couples: KotoUmi, NozoEri, RinPana, NicoMaki, and TsubaHono. In story order: 1) Second Year Trio 2) RinPana 3) All Characters (Bonus NozoEri)
1. Developing A Resistance To Kotori's Eyes

**Title: Developing A Resistance To Kotori's Eyes**

**Characters: **

**Kousaka Honoka**

**Sonoda Umi**

**Minami Kotori**

A/N: This is one of several one-shots set in my Love Live/Log Horizon crossover AU world. Most of the information about it is 'Other Media' and you can check it out on my tumblr blog: eri-loves-nozomi

* * *

Umi doesn't quite know how she gets herself into these sorts of situation. One moment she is sitting in a (somewhat expensive in her opinion) net café, arguing with her best friend Honoka about the proper types of monsters to use for leveling ("No Honoka, charging in against a mid-level boss is not the perfect way to level up someone who is below level 10!"), and the next she is staring that mid-level boss monster right in the face.

Honoka is a ways away, looking at the (suddenly too real) rocks and dirt and well, everything. She hasn't yet noticed that they are all about to meet their demise at the tusks of a giant pig, being her usual enthusiastic self.

"Hey, isn't this great? I feel like I'm actually in the game. Everything is so real!"

Umi notices that her hands are shaking as she grips her katana. She is pretty confident in her sword fighting abilities, but there is this little screen in her upper left hand field of view telling her that she is only level 3 and her brain is telling her that all of a sudden, that matters a lot more than how much she has been practicing lately.

The 'Imperial Forest Boar lvl 33' snorts and turns toward where Honoka is loudly and enthusiastically exclaiming about how she just saw a bird flying overhead.

"Honoka-chan…" Kotori breathes worriedly. Umi is glad that Kotori is here next to her, instead of over near where Honoka was unexpectedly drawing the attention of all sorts of hostile wild-life.

"Don't worry, Kotori. I'll protect you!" Even though she said that, Umi seriously doubts that she can get them both safely out of this situation. However, she will do her best to save Kotori, even if she has to go down fighting. She gives Kotori a brief, reassuring hug, because she still looks a little worried.

"Be careful, Umi-chan" And Kotori looks at her with these large, puppy dog eyes that are impossible to resist (and oh, how she has always tried so hard to resist), and she has to agree not to do anything stupid, even if she wants to sometimes. There isn't any more time to talk, because the boar is charging their dear (oblivious) friend and so Umi has to rush in, even though she doesn't think it will do any good. Like with Kotori and her unusually persuasive looks, Umi can't ever stop herself from running headlong into whatever Honoka has gotten herself into, because saving her is what she does.

"Huh? Hey, did you hear that!?" Honoka finally notices the boar heading straight for her, but Umi is already there, doing her best to distract it's ire from her defenseless friend. She gets one hit on its underbelly that does…1 hp of damage…and then the tusks send her flying into a nearby tree.

"ahaha…well crap." Honoka has a nice way of summing up the situation, Umi thinks and then her mind is gone and so is her body.

* * *

Umi can't remember where she was before she woke up. She remembers getting hit by a giant pig, of course, but after that, there was something else. It doesn't really matter, because now she is sitting in a large cathedral, the place that adventurers re-spawn. She's been here at least 20 times already, since Honoka's method of leveling is sort of the 'throw them in and watch them drown' variety, but it's never been so real before. She can hear a lot of confused chatter from other adventurers outside. They are probably all wondering how this could have happened. But Umi is more concerned about Honoka and Kotori.

It isn't long at all before they both appear in the cathedral. Kotori immediately cries out her name and runs into her arms. Honoka just scratches the back of her head and gives her that grin of hers.

"I was so worried about you Umi-chan. I'm so glad you're alright." Kotori looks at her with tears in her eyes, and Umi can only hold her and give her a tender smile.

"What happened?" It's more of a question for Honoka, but Kotori is the one who answers.

"Honoka-chan couldn't figure out how to use her special attacks."

"It's way too hard to fight with one hand and use the menu with the other! And I need both hands since this is a two handed long sword!" Umi is certain that was the dumbest thing she had ever heard. She frowns and considers giving her friend a piece of her mind, but Kotori's hand on her arm stops her.

"Don't be too hard on her, please, Umi-chan?" Kotori is giving her the look again, and Umi tries really hard to resist is, but she can't. She only sighs then and nods.

"But hey, at least we know we can't die now!" Umi's eyes twitches and she'd really just like to punch her just once, but she knows she can't. Not this time.

"Shut up Honoka! Just…be quiet for awhile." She isn't resistant to Kotori's puppy dog eyes yet, but Umi is working on it. One day, she will be able to tell Honoka 'No!', even with Kotori standing there, and save them from a lot of misfortune.


	2. The Maximum Number Is Not Infinity

**Title: The Maximum Number Is Not Infinity**

**Characters:**

**Hoshizora Rin**

**Koizumi Hanayo**

* * *

Rin isn't normally the one to put her foot down, that's Kayo-chin's job after all, but even she has to admit that things might have started to get a teensy bit out of hand this time...

* * *

It started out harmless enough. Kayo-chin wanted to be a summoner, and summon a whole bunch of cute animals. Rin was definitely on board with that. She supported her dear Kayo-chin through all the hazardous summoning quests (because it turns out you can't just learn summons the way you learn skills), comforted her when she found out that you can't summon normal cute and fluffy animals, and even helped her find the cuteness in the terrifying high level summon 'Dire Alpaca lvl 73.'

"This big guy is wonderful, Kayo-chin! He's so smart and nice, and he will definitely be able to protect you! I'll still protect you too, of course, but he'll be a big help!"

Kayo-chin had a hard time at first accepting how ugly and scary looking most of her summons were, but Rin was confident that they were secretly cute underneath and after a bit of coaxing, she was able to get Kayo-chin to come out from her hiding place (quivering behind a boulder in the practice yard), and get to know how wonderful and dedicated they were.

Rin loved going on summon quests to help Kayo-chin gain more and more summons, and Kayo-chin loved all her new not-so-fluffy friends after a few forced bonding sessions, but they weren't the cute and fluffy pets she had wanted. She also couldn't have them around all the time, because they used up her mana. That was when Rin made a mistake. She hates it when her Kayo-chin is upset, and so, she told her about a special sub-class option known as 'Animal Tamer.'

"If you become an animal tamer, you'll be able to have lots of cute pets around you all the time!"

* * *

…and that is how this situation came about.

"Kayo-chin! I need to talk to you about something! It's super important nyah!" Rin calls out to Kayo-chin, but she isn't certain that she can hear her from all the way across the yard, especially with all the noise that the animals are making. She thinks that it would be better to just go to Kayo-chin to talk, but she can't cross the yard the normal way, for fear of stepping on some of the cute little critters (that are pretty much everywhere) and hurting them.

"I'll have to use my stealthy moves for this!" It was a bit of a complicated maneuver, but somehow Rin manages to ninja jump from the roof of their house to the place Kayo-chin was sitting in the practice yard. Since there is literally no space to land without accidentally squishing something, Rin aims directly for Kayo-chin and appears in her lap, arms around her neck.

"Yeep! Rin-chan! Y-you startled me…" Even though she claims to be startled, Kayo-chin still wraps her arms around Rin's waist and holds her close.

"Nyahaha! This was the only way I could think of to get your attention! I need to talk to you about something important." Rin relaxes into the warm hug and thinks maybe it would be fine to stay like this for a little while.

"Oh? Is something going on in town?" Kayo-chin bites her lips worriedly and Rin can't help but think about how cute she is all the time.

"It's here! We are getting complaints that all our adorable pets are getting underfoot when we go out, keeping the neighbors up at night, and eating all the flowers. Kayo-chin, don't you think that we might need to let some of them go?" Kayo-chin is visibly upset at this, and Rin reconsiders whether she wants to pursue this. She doesn't want Kayo-chin to be sad or cry. She can retract what she said and play with the litter of kittens they took in the other day… No, she has to be the strong one this time and put her foot down (not actually though, as it would land on a porcupine that wouldn't appreciate getting stepped on very much).

"All of the little baby animals love it here, because you take such good care of them, but they probably miss their mamas a whole lot. We should take them back to the forest so that they can spend time with their families. Okay? " Rin gives Kayo-chin her comforting smile and holds her hand while she decides whether to agree with Rin. Rin knows that Kayo-chin will make the best decision.

"Alright, Rin-chan, but only the ones that will be okay on their own. Help me decide which ones we should take back to the forest? " Kayo-chin has tears in her eyes as she says this, but she is doing her best, because she really does want to do what's best for all of them. Rin is very proud of her.

"Yeah! I'll help you with everything! We'll visit them in the forest all the time, too!" Rin is happy that things will work out this time. She is certain that it will probably happen again, but as long as she and Kayo-chin are together, there won't be any situation they can't handle. Rin cuddles with Kayo-chin a while longer (they don't need to start right now, right?) and idly wonders just how many pets an animal tamer can have at one time before the game decides not to allow any more.

Rin's final thought before falling asleep in Kayo-chin's arms was 'If there is no limit, how will I find her under all of them? ' and she dreams of a world covered in cute, fluffy animal babies.


	3. Coincidences Do Not Exist

**Coincidences Do Not Exist**

**Characters: All of them**

* * *

It all started with Honoka. When the new MMORPG, Elder Tale came out at the end of her third year of middle school, she just had to try it. The commercials for the game were so amazing; the visuals took her breath away. She worked hard at helping around the store and saved up all of her allowances, even for-going buying some of the other games that had just come out, all so that she could purchase a copy right when it hit stores.

The hype was justified. Honoka thought that this game was the best one she had ever played. There was a whole world to explore and she was ready for it. The only down-side was that, since she had bought the game first, Umi and Kotori couldn't play with her right away, but she would definitely fix that as soon as possible.

The next time her two friends came over, Honoka eagerly showed them her new character, explained how awesome it would be for the three of them to party together, and asked them to join her. Kotori was an easy sell. She always agreed right away to anything that sounded even remotely interesting, much to Umi's dismay. Umi was the one that tried to steer them all down the right path, and in this case, away from games and toward studying for the high school entrance exams.

Umi was right this time, Honoka had to admit. She had thought that she would be fine if she studied extra hard and then relaxed by playing her new game. It turned out, that plan wasn't the best one that she had ever come up with. As the studying dragged on, she would end up staying up later and later in order to play as much as she could, and end the end, the lack of sleep caught up with her and she ended up completely bombing most of her entrance exams.

Honoka was extremely grateful to Umi and Kotori for standing by her side and choosing to join her at the only school that would take her, though Umi's punishment for the trouble she had caused had been beyond scary. Afterwards, Honoka had been made to promise that she would not play games during the study period right before exams ever again.

* * *

The first time Eri heard about Elder Tale, it was from her dear sister, Arisa. Arisa wasn't all that interested in role-playing games, but she had given it a try one day while visiting her friend, Yukiho. Yukiho had gotten into the game in order to get her older sister, Honoka, to stop talking about it every second of the day. This had backfired in that now Honoka constantly talked about what she was doing in the game, rather than about how awesome it would be to play.

While Arisa hadn't thought much of the game itself, she had decided that maybe it would be the perfect distraction for Eri, who was working way too much all the time. A gift from her sister wasn't something that Eri would ever put away without even trying, so she had dutifully started up the game and created a character.

Eri had to admit that the graphics were quite nice and the game-play was pretty well done over all. Exploring was a nice option, but so was fighting monsters. Overall, it was a nice game, but that was it. She was only going to play a few more times in order to satisfy her sister's wish for her to relax more, and then she would put the game away on a shelf and get back to using her time for more important pursuits.

What changed her mind was just a small thing. A trip through a small village, while wandering the countryside, to restock supplies. The NPC who ran the only local merchant shop was an odd one. Not only did she not have an actual shop, but she was also extremely difficult to track down. The village NPCs only could tell her that the merchant lady existed, not where to find her, so she had to spend all day searching the village.

Eri finally located the merchant at a small shrine that was barely visible through the surrounding forest on the western edge of the village. She was completely surprised to find that the village merchant was also the shrine maiden, and it made perfect sense that she would be here at the shrine instead of in a shop. Despite this, Eri was still somewhat miffed that the villagers hadn't just told her where to go.

"If you keep frowning like that, you're beautiful face will stay that way, you know…" Eri stared at the NPC incredulously. Non-player characters weren't supposed to have dialog like that, she thought. The girl in front of her just giggled playfully at her and proceeded to tease her a bit. Eri could feel the heat creeping up her cheeks, and was grateful that there was no way that the game character would be able to tell what her actual reaction was.

Five full minutes of teasing interaction later and Eri wasn't so certain that the NPC couldn't tell what she was feeling even with a computer interface between them. It was right then that she decided not to stop playing this game. She wanted to know if this NPC, a village girl named Toujou Nozomi, really could tell things about her just from interacting with her avatar. She wanted to visit her and talk to her more. She thought that maybe, it would be nice if they could become friends.

* * *

Kira Tsubasa was a life-saver, or in this case, a relationship saver. That is what Nico thought the day that her high school friend told her about Elder Tale, a game that a college friend, Ayase, plays all the time. It was perfect. If she could get Maki to play with her during the week, then the time they spent together would triple. They could go on virtual dates, get to know each other more, and then there would be more time on the weekends for more intimate things.

The hard part, of course, was getting Maki to see the point in playing a silly game on a school night instead of doing her homework. It took Nico three weeks of petty arguments and absolutely no cuddling, kissing, or hand-holding to convince Maki to even give it a try, and even then, she had to agree that studying came first and the weekends were reserved for real life dates. Nico was okay with the second thing, because she really wanted to move to second base, but she sucked at studying and it was so boring. However, she would do it because she loved Maki and didn't want to make her angry.

It came as a surprise to both of them that Maki was the one to really get into the game. For Nico, the entire point of playing was to be with Maki. Maybe she had entertained the idea of becoming a virtual idol, but that was a secondary goal. Maki, however, was completely taken in by the virtual world and wanted to do everything when they played together.

After a while, Nico started to expect the text from Maki informing her that the girl had finished her homework and wanted to go online. Nico, of course, wasn't anywhere near done with hers, but any excuse to avoid homework and see Maki was welcome. They played together almost every night, meeting lots of different players, but on the weekends, it was all about them. Their weekend dates were the one thing they always agreed upon as being more important than anything. Nico was still hoping for the opportunity to take their relationship to the next level, and she wasn't going to let a game or anything else get in the way of that.

* * *

It was Maki that got them interested in Elder Tale. Neither Hanayo nor Rin were the type to be interested in playing computer games. Rin especially usually didn't have the patience for games that required you to sit still for long periods of time, preferring fast paced arcade games instead. In fact, she loved playing games at the local arcade with a hyperactive girl named Honoka that she often ran into there.

Ever since Maki started dating Nico, and subsequently started playing Elder Tale, she didn't have as much time to spend hanging out with her old friends, and while Rin and Hanayo were perfectly happy to spend time with each other, they also wanted to stay close to her. The only solution was for the two of them to start playing Elder Tale too. Then they could all be together. Nico jokingly described it as virtual double dating.

Even though it started out at a way for Rin and Hanayo to spend more time with Maki, they quickly became enchanted with the game and started playing it for their own enjoyment.

One day, when Rin was at the arcade, she ran into Honoka again, and since she thought it would be awesome to get to know her more, she invited Honoka to play Elder Tale with them. It turned out that Honoka had been playing for over two years already, and the two of them had a loud and energetic conversation about how awesome the game is, right there in the arcade, to the annoyance of most of the people around them.

And so, everything came full circle, one month before the release of the expansion that changed everything.

* * *

**Bonus Addition**

Nozomi was lonely. She had spent her entire life in this one small village, and there was no one her own age to play with. The adventurers who passed through were boring, with completely flat personalities, who only ever seemed to say a handful of stock phrases. They never bothered to stay and talk anyway.

She had considered leaving once or twice, and this last time, she was really planning to do it, but fortune has a way of changing your mind. On the day that she decided it was time to move on, she was located by an adventurer who wanted to sell an extremely peculiar magical item. This was no bother to Nozomi, since buying and selling items was part of her job. It was the item description that caught her attention.

'Invocation of this item will grant you a glimpse of the deepest desire of your heart.' Normally, Nozomi would store away magical items for resale later, but this time, she really wanted to use it. How could she resist the chance to see what was in her own heart? If she was lucky, perhaps the glimpse would give her a clue to its location, so that she could seek it out, whatever it was.

With that thought, Nozomi invoked the magical item and eagerly looked on as a picture formed in front of her eyes. The picture that appeared before her was that of a beautiful blond girl, who appeared to be sitting upon the steps of the small shrine Nozomi often worked at. In the image, the girl was completely focused on some sort of pad that she seemed to be drawing upon. An artist, maybe? The time limit for the glimpse was rapidly approaching, and just as the image faded, Nozomi saw herself enter the scene and that blond girl glance up at her with a warm, loving smile.

Nozomi was shaken to the core by what she had seen. The deepest desire of her heart was to be smiled at by that girl. She had never met her, but she wanted to. The scene had been shown to her took place at her shrine, so now it was obvious to her that she shouldn't leave. Nozomi would wait at the shrine everyday from then on, so that when her blond came to meet her, she would be there.


End file.
